First Lie Wins by Ashley Elston-Book

From a Google Image Search – Shreveport’s Secrets

First Lie Wins by Ashley Elston was chosen by Reese Witherspoon for her book club. Since it seemed that it might involve some creative plotting and offer entertainment, two things on my reading radar, I added it to my iPad Kindle app. It’s not great literary fiction, but it succeeded in satisfying my desire for a dessert course.

There is no sense in naming our main character since she has many names. When she finds herself at a young age having to support her mother who is dying and herself, when she has to pay all the household and medical expenses, she becomes a jewel thief. She finds a job that allows her to meet women who come shopping wearing their valuable jewelry. She learns to separate the gems from their settings as the settings make the jewels too recognizable. She is caught, but not by the police. A very scary man she never meets in person exploits her fear of exposure and pays her very well to use her skills for his purposes.

What happens when she falls in love with her assigned target forces her to face the unsavory side of her current situation and the fears that keep her tied to this blackmailer posing as a benefactor. Can she beat him at his own game? Can she learn his identity? Although her attraction to the man she is being paid to target motivates her, the last straw is when her dream of one day returning to her real identity is destroyed and all seems hopeless. She makes use of all she has learned to turn the tables. The first lie wins! The story is both creative and entertaining. The reader wins!